Alex Eala Lands Primetime US Open Match: When and How to Watch

Alex Eala will make her 2026 US Open singles debut under New York’s brilliant lights Tuesday, on a stage giant enough to accommodate the phenomenon surrounding her.

The Seventeenth-seeded Filipina will face American qualifier Mary Stoiana in the second match of the Louis Armstrong Stadium evening session at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

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Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and Gael Monfils open the session at 7 p.m. ET. Eala and Stoiana will play after their best-of-five-set match ends.

That makes roughly 9 p.m. ET a affordable estimate for Eala’s entrance, although the match could start significantly earlier or later. For viewers in the Philippines, the projected begin is around 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The official US Open order of play does not assign Eala a fixed time beyond inserting her second in the Louis Armstrong evening session.

The 14,000-seat stadium is the match’s second-largest venue, behind the 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. For a participant whose practices have become occasions of their own, the placement feels less like a courtesy than crowd control.

Alex Eala’s Tuesday US Open Schedule

Eala enters the season’s remaining Grand Slam at a career-high world No. 18 after profitable her first WTA Tour singles title in Washington. Her run included victories over Zheng Qinwen, Leylah Fernandez, Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka and Jessica Pegula.

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Stoiana, ranked No. 122, won three qualifying matches to earn her main-draw place. The former collegiate No. 1 defeated Yuan Yue 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the remaining qualifying spherical.

The two have met once. Eala defeated Stoiana 7-5, 6-2 at the 2024 ITF Landisville match, although both gamers have made appreciable progress since then.

Alex Eala’s Star Power Takes Over Fan Week

Eala’s court task solutions a request Patrick McEnroe made before the order of play was launched.

“The USTA better make sure they put her on big courts,” the ESPN analyst said during the community’s US Open preview convention call.

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McEnroe warned organizers against inserting Eala on a aspect court and predicted New York’s crowd would be “wild for her.”

Mary Joe Fernandez provided the evidence. The former world No. 4 described Eala’s following as “off the charts,” noting that followers more and more arrive not only for her matches but also for her practices.

The forecast held all through Fan Week.

Spectators crowded the viewing areas around Eala’s practices. She then confronted close good friend Iva Jovic in the ticketed Stars of the Open exhibition inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the ambiance was electric, with a packed crowd stuffed with Philippine flags.

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Jovic won the one-set exhibition 6-3, but the rating grew to become secondary when Eala and Jovic invited their fathers onto the court for a playful doubles phase. The household second introduced another ovation from the crowd.

Eala’s appeal in New York was already established. More than 8,000 spectators packed Grandstand last yr to watch her rally from 5-1 down in the third set and defeat Clara Tauson, turning into the first Filipino in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles main-draw match.

One yr later, her viewers—and her profile—has grown considerably.

Major Media Outlets Spotlight Eala’s Rise

Eala’s transformation from rising prospect to worldwide star was mirrored in the protection surrounding her arrival in New York.

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She appeared on the Forbes Daily Cover, which examined her growing fame and business potential.

Sports Illustrated positioned Eala on its digital cowl beneath the headline “Pinoy Power,” describing her as “tennis’s next great superstar.”

The New Yorker explored how she grew to become a image of the Philippines, connecting her rise with the cultural values and national satisfaction surrounding her profession.

ESPN has also positioned Eala at the heart of its US Open protection. In “Inside the Raucous and Rapid Rise of Alex Eala,” the community examined the huge crowds, expectations and cultural weight accompanying her breakthrough, describing her as half Manny Pacquiao and half Maria Sharapova—and a participant succesful of making a deep run in New York.

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Few gamers without a Grand Slam quarterfinal look obtain simultaneous highlight therapy from Forbes, Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker and ESPN.

Combined with her packed practices, Fan Week appearances and huge digital following, the protection illustrates how rapidly Eala has moved beyond being merely a compelling tennis prospect. She has become one of the sport’s most marketable younger stars.

Eala also participated in US Open Media Day, match promotional videos and interviews around the grounds. Her assembly with Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson produced another broadly shared second centered on their Filipino heritage.

Queens Offers Eala a Home Crowd

Eala could hardly have chosen a higher New York borough for her rise.

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Approximately 94,000 Filipinos lived in New York City as of 2023, according to an Asian American Federation demographic research. Queens was home to about 49,500 of them, more than any other borough.

Woodside’s Little Manila sits several miles west of the National Tennis Center. The Filipino business and cultural enclave stretches along Roosevelt Avenue, centered close to 69th and seventieth streets, with eating places, bakeries, grocery shops, remittance facilities and other Filipino-owned companies.

A New York City neighborhood research estimated that Filipinos symbolize roughly 16% of Woodside’s population. The metropolis formally acknowledged the group in 2022 by co-naming the intersection of seventieth Street and Roosevelt Avenue “Little Manila Avenue.”

Those figures do not account for supporters touring from New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania or the Philippines itself. Eala’s New York viewers is native, regional and international at once.

Coco Gauff, Alexander Zverev Headline Arthur Ashe

World No. 4 Coco Gauff receives Tuesday’s premier girls’s task, opening the Arthur Ashe evening session against Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez at 7 p.m.

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Top-seeded Alexander Zverev follows Gauff against Italian veteran Lorenzo Sonego.

The Arthur Ashe day session begins with Madison Keys against Alina Korneeva. Taylor Fritz then faces 18-year-old American wild card Darwin Blanch.

Louis Armstrong’s day schedule opens with fifth-seeded Flavio Cobolli against Francisco Comesana. Fifth-seeded Mirra Andreeva then meets Indonesian qualifier Janice Tjen.

ESPN’s Tuesday protection begins at 11:30 a.m. ET and continues through 6 p.m. “US Open Match Point” follows from 6 to 7 p.m., with primetime protection starting at 7 p.m. on ESPN and ESPN2. Every court will also stream through the ESPN App for ESPN Unlimited subscribers.

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Eala will not play inside the US Open’s largest stadium Tuesday. Gauff and Zverev own that distinction.

But with 14,000 seats, a roof to maintain in the noise and one of the match’s most passionate fan bases making ready to fill them, Louis Armstrong may be precisely where the greatest get together in Queens unfolds.

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